1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a body fat measuring device (hereafter, referred to as body fat meter), and, more particularly, to a handheld type body fat meter for determining a body fat rate based on an electric impedance measured by the use of four electrodes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As for a conventional card type body fat meter, there is disclosed a Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 5-2164, in which said body fat meter has a display and an operation sections arranged on a front surface thereof and electrodes for measurement arranged on a back surface thereof. Though there are four measuring electrodes, they are configured so that two of said four electrodes are brought into contact with one finger of the left hand and other two are brought into contact with one finger of the right hand.
There is also provided a body fat meter of pocket game machine type by NAMCO Ltd., which has two electrodes each being disposed on each side of a main body thereof.
Furthermore, as a card type body fat meter, there are provided xe2x80x9cPokeNAVIxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cPokeMINIxe2x80x9d by Yamato Scale Co. Ltd., whose electrodes are arranged on a front and a back surfaces of the left and the right upper corners of a main body thereof respectively.
In the body fat meter disclosed by said Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 5-2164, the main body thereof shall be turned over when the fingers are brought into contact with the electrodes to measure the body fat rate and then shall be turned over again after measurement, which makes an operation thereof inconvenient. In addition, though there are four measuring electrodes arranged on the back surface, since two of them are brought into contact with one figure of the left hand and other two with one figure of the right hand respectively, a distance between electrodes is short and thereby it is difficult to improve an accuracy of the measurement.
As for the body fat meter provided by NAMCO Ltd., it is also difficult, similar to that described in said Publication, to improve an accuracy of the measurement. In addition, since a device thereof has a size to be enveloped by one hand, some of figures of the left and the right hands are likely to come in contact with each other during measurement, which makes a significant error.
Furthermore, in the body fat meter provided by Yamato Scale Co. Ltd., when an operation switch is operated after the electrodes being gripped, an angle between adjacent fingers should be made wider and a holding manner of the main body should be changed, which makes an operation thereof inconvenient.
An object of this invention is to provide a handheld bioelectric impedance measuring apparatus which can eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks and disadvantages of the conventional body fat meters.
The present invention provides a handheld bioelectric impedance measuring apparatus in which four electrodes are arranged apart with one another on both end sides of an upper and a lower side surfaces of a main body respectively, and a display section and an operation section are arranged on a front surface of the main body, so that the finger of the left hand and that of the right hand may be prevented from coming into contact with each other to improve an accuracy of the measurement as well as a convenience in operation. In addition, the present invention provides another handheld bioelectric impedance measuring apparatus in which electrodes are mounted on outer surfaces of four switches arranged apart with one another on both end sides of an upper and a lower side surfaces of a main body respectively, and a display section and an operation section are arranged on a front surface of the main body, and a power supply means is also mounted thereon for supplying said measuring apparatus with an electric power when all of said switches are in ON, independently of power switch being in OFF, and thereby for measuring the bioelectric impedance, so that the finger of the left hand and that of the right hand may be prevented from coming into contact with each other as well as a contact pressure onto the electrodes may be secured to improve an accuracy of the measurement, and the bioelectric impedannce may be measured only by gripping the electrodes to improve a convenience in operation.
A handheld bioelectric impedance measuring apparatus according to the present invention comprises a main body with insulating property having a card-shaped outline, four electrodes arranged apart with one another on an upper and a lower side surfaces of said main body respectively, a display section arranged on a front surface of said main body, and an operation section arranged on the front surface of said main body.
When said operation section is arranged in a lower side of said display section, numerical values of a height and a weight may be easily input by thumbs of the left and the right hands in the same manner as of a game machine, and the thumbs may be easily moved from the operation section to the electrodes on the lower side surface to measure the body fat rate because of a short distance therebetween, which provides an improved operability.
When said operation section is divided and arranged on both sides of said display section, the thumbs of the left and the right hands may be moved smoothly without any strain when the main body is gripped from both sides by both hands to operate it, which provides an improved operability.
Another handheld bioelectric impedannce measuring apparatus according to the present invention comprises a main body with insulating property having a card-shaped outline, four switches arranged apart with one another on an upper and a lower side surfaces of said main body respectively, electrodes mounted on outer surfaces of said switches, a display section arranged on a front surface of said main body, an operation section arranged on the front surface of said main body, and a control section for calculating a bioelectric impedance based on a measured result from said electrodes when all of said switches are in ON and for displaying a calculated result on said display section, so that a finger of the left hand and that of the right hand may be prevented from coming into contact with each other as well as a contact pressure onto said electrodes may be secured, and thereby an accuracy of measurement may be improved.
When an electric power source switch for supplying the measuring apparatus described above with electricity is mounted on the main body thereof and an electric power source supply means is also provided thereto which supplies said measuring apparatus with electricity when all of said switches are in ON, independently of said electric power source switch being in OFF, and allows to measure the bioelectric impedance, so that the bioelectric impedance may be measure only by gripping the electrodes, an operability may be sufficiently improved.
Furthermore, this invention also provides a handheld type body fat meter, a handheld type sphygmomanometer and a pulse rate meter which utilize a bioelectric impedance measuring apparatus as mentioned above.
This invention will now be described in further detail with regard to preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.